In U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,508, issued Nov. 16, 1999, of Agraharam et al., entitled "Method of Providing Seamless Cross-Service Connectivity in Telecommunications Network" incorporated herein by reference, a method of sending an e-mail message to a subscriber of an alias telephone number e-mail system is disclosed. As described therein, a sender of an e-mail message to a subscriber uses the subscriber's telephone number as the name portion of the intended recipient's e-mail address, together with a known domain name. A message so addressed to an alias of the intended recipient's actual e-mail address, telephone.sub.-- number@known.sub.-- domain.sub.-- name, is sent to a translation server at that known domain name where the alias telephone number name is translated to the recipient-subscriber's actual e-mail address, and the message forwarded to the subscriber at their actual e-mail address. The subscriber is then able to retrieve his or her e-mail messages in a conventional manner when he or she logs onto their e-mail server. Advantageously, senders of e-mail messages to intended recipients who are subscribers to this service need not know their intended recipient's actual e-mail address, but only their intended recipient's telephone number. Whereas a recipient's actual e-mail address may not be readily determined, an alias telephone number e-mail address is likely to be known or can be easily obtained using conventional telephone directory assistance methods.
Although e-mail messaging is becoming a more and more popular method of contact, many people still prefer to use the telephone. Such telephone callers will often find the called party not at home or their office, or unavailable. Such called parties are likely to have voice-mail systems to which callers can leave voice-mail messages. A called party who is "computer savvy" and interacts most frequently through his or her client terminal, must then separately retrieve voice-mail messages left on their voice-mail system and e-mail messages left on their e-mail system.